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Attractive Peoples likely to end up together

A study has found that people rated as attractive tend to seek out equally attractive people in social situations. And attractive women were most likely of all to be found at the centre of a group, the researchers said.

Researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand, Oxford University and others carried out a giant experiment using hidden cameras on the roof of a sports stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand.They gathered 172 people who did not know each other and asked them to form groups.

They were asked to 'mingle' while the researchers set up the study, and to form groups of any number and composition and raise their hand once this was done.They were also directed to form new groups eight more times in the space 600 sq metres (6,458 sq ft).

THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE Researchers found that attractive people tend to gather with other good-looking types.They gathered 172 people who did not know each other and asked them to form groups. They found that on average, participants formed groups of six individuals, and that they were more likely to approach others of similar attractiveness.Attractive women were most likely of all to be found at the centre of a group, the researchers said.

Each individual was given a numbered cap to wear, so they could be identified from above. Their pictures had been taken earlier, and their faces rated by three members of the research team for attractiveness.Study lead author Professor Jamin Halberstadt, of Otago's Department of Psychology, said: 'For one, we wanted to know if people group together based on physical traits that they share, such as gender or physical attractiveness.

'We also wanted to find out if these traits predicted the physical position of individuals in their groups. 'Finally, we sought to determine if how close they stood to others would predict how cooperative they would be in a future group task.'The researchers found that on average, participants formed groups of six individuals, and that they were more likely to approach others of similar attractiveness.

Professor Halberstadt said: 'Women and attractive individuals were also more likely than men and unattractive individuals to be in the centre of their groups.'Our analysis could not confirm whether this was because they acted as 'social attractors', although this is the likely explanation -- as we didn't find evidence that they were jumping into the middle of the group as it formed.'

Co-author Dr Jonathan Jong, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford, said 'Our main breakthrough came in knowing what to film and how to analyze the film later.

'Most measures of cooperation are pretty overt or direct, but we looked at the subtleties of how people moved during the cooperation task, and devised algorithms to analyze the data in order to obtain the results.'The research was published in PLOS One.